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Law Enforcement Raids The Fox News Mole's Den

“I just got search warranted at 6:30am by a very polite crew from the DA’s office,” wrote Joe Muto, a.k.a. the Fox News Mole, on Twitter this morning. “Took my iPhone, laptop, some old notebooks.”

The desire to live in public is strong in this one. Muto, a former associate producer at “The O’Reilly Factor,” is under investigation for “anonymously” leaking behind-the-scenes videos from Fox News to the blog Gawker. Muto tweets that the potential charges against him include “ grand larceny, amongst other things.” The “other things” surely include computer tampering. The New York District’s Attorney Office declined comment on an open investigation.

The problem for Muto is that he sold proprietary material from Fox to another news outlet. Gawker has said that it paid Muto $5,000 for his “anonymous” Fox Mole reports and for passing along somewhat embarrassing videos that he had access to, including Mitt Romney and Sean Hannity making small talk and Newt Gingrich being groomed by his wife before an appearance.

The Atlantic Wire notes that Muto “didn’t sound overly worried. [W]e can only assume it’s because he knows Fox and therefore expected to be served with a warrant, so cleared sensitive information from his hard drives.”

That is not good legal advice, my friends! Muto had already received a letter from Fox’s lawyers telling him to preserve evidence for possible criminal and civil investigations. Erasing incriminating info after getting instructions like that is a crime (destruction of evidence).

What may be easing Muto’s mind is Gawker’s last very-public tangle with law enforcement. Police raided a Gizmodo editor’s home in 2010 after the blog bought a “stolen” iPhone 4 prototype and refused to return it to Apple. A case was never brought against editor Jason Chen, though those who sold him the prototype were slapped with criminal charges. Chen was protected, in part, by journalistic privilege. Muto’s case is more complicated. Though he is/was a journalist, he was not operating as one in this situation, nor really as a whistleblower. Thevideos he handed over to Gawker were a far cry from the Pentagon Papers. Gawker’s lawyer, however, is claiming that Muto is an employee in a statement to Poynter.

A question that remains: is this a civil case or a criminal case? Fox could fairly easily pursue a civil case against Muto for violating the terms of his employment contract. Will the District Attorney determine it’s worth sicking a prosecutor on Muto? We’ll find out soon.

Muto, meanwhile, expressed some frustration at being investigated by the DA in light of the other legal issues swirling around News Corp right now, tweeting, “I should have done something more innocuous, like hacked a dead girl’s phone and interfered with a police investigation.”

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